


Shesta's Life Lessons No.2

by Nehasy



Category: Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne
Genre: Bad Ideas, F/F, Ghosts, Life on the Vione, M/M, Mentions of Abusive Relationship, Murder-Suicide, Off-screen Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 15:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8759410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nehasy/pseuds/Nehasy
Summary: The elite Ryuugekitai are sharing scary stories during their downtime and upon learning that one takes place on the Vione, they decide to investigate it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by the horror prompt "Legend has it that you can still hear her crying for her lover in the dead of night.” I just totally pictured the dragon slayers sitting around telling scary stories and getting into mischief. I might make this a two part story if people are interested.
> 
> *Set in my Dragon in the Ashes universe, this takes place pre-series. There is offscreen violence/murder and an offscreen relationship with Dilandau/Miguel with mention of Dilandau/Shesta. Harsh language, offscreen homosexual sexual relations, underage relationships, Child Soldiers
> 
> I don’t own Vision of Escaflowne or its characters. Just borrowing them.

“Legend has it that you can still hear her crying for her lover in the dead of night.”  Guimel brought his story to a close, his voice trailing off ominously into silence, leaving the other dragonslayers leaning forward, their eyes wide.

                “Dammit Guimel!”  Shesta grumbled loudly, hugging his pillow tightly to his chest and glaring at the fluffy haired blond.  “Now I’m never going to get to sleep!”

                “Isn’t that the idea of sharing the scariest stories you know?”  Gatti yawned, feigning boredom.  As the second in command of their unit, it was up to him to act strong and stalwart, far too above being afraid of silly fables.  “Still, that one was over the top, even for you.”

                “Nuh uh!” Guimel protested loudly as he raised his chin defiantly.  “I heard it from Lieutenant Pago who heard it from Sergeant Dox who knew her!”  Rather than be impressed with the stories proud lineage, the second in command rolled his eyes and leaned back with a heavy sigh that only the truly world weary could manage.

                “You’ve been hanging out with those infantry goons down on fifth level again haven’t you?”

                “Of course not!!... Maybe a little?”  Large blue eyes widened with feigned innocence under his superior’s scrutiny and the rest of the elite drew back cautiously as if the trouble their teammate was about to be in was contagious.

                “Didn’t Lord Dilandau tell you to stay away from them?”  While Gatti’s ominous voice wasn’t nearly as good as their leaders but it still got his displeasure across rather succinctly.  Knowing that he couldn’t exactly argue the fact, all Guimel could do was look down at the floor and hunch his shoulders defensively.   

                “…maybe?”

                Dallet snorted loudly and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the table as he always did whenever their leader wasn’t in the room.

                “So, you really think that this story is real?”  He asked, a slight smile playing about his lips as he met Viole’s eyes across the table.  The longer haired slayer grinned, immediately picking up on what his friend was angling towards.

                “You know, deck three isn’t that hard to access.  Didn’t Captain Jasen’s team end up with duty watch there this week?”  Both boys’ heads nodded in perfect tandem as they glanced over at Gatti with wide imploring eyes. 

                The ash blonde frowned slightly, trying to head off their idea before the others could catch on, fully aware that if they all ganged up on him he’d have no way to effectively dissuade them.  Honestly, he was positive that they fed off of each other’s childishness.  If their captain heard about this idiocy, he’d beat them all into unconsciousness.

                “No.”  He stated firmly.  “We’re officers.  We don’t go prowling around the lower decks like… like…”  A properly offensive word seemed to escape him at the moment.  It was a hesitation that the others were quick to take advantage of.

                “Jasen?  He’s a lazy bastard and so is his squad.  Nightguard is such a stupid name for a team.” Shesta scoffed loudly and was met with nodding heads from his teammates.  “They’ll all be just hanging around the mess on that level or beating each other off in corners.  Hey, did I tell you about this one time I was running a message for Lord Dilandau to Captain Bergman when I came across Captain Jasen and-”

                “Shesta, I don’t want to hear perverted stories!”  Viole interrupted quickly, all too aware of the young blondes strange fascination with the sexual practices of the infantry soldiers on board; or really anyone in general.

                “Yeah.”  Dallet chimed in, happy to support his partner.  “Besides, I want to go check out this story.  I bet it’s fake and Guimel was just trying to scare you Shes.”

                “Well… it didn’t work.”  Shesta grumbled, still clutching his pillow closely to his chest.

                “What didn’t work?”  Miguel asked as he walked into the room, his entrance heralded by the soft hiss of the door.  The handsome slayer was still dressed in his uniform, sword strapped to his hip and not a hair out of place as it hung artfully over one eye.  He looked slick and professional, as if he’d just stepped into the room to give a duty report.  That is, until you noticed his flushed cheeks, bruised lips and somewhat boneless movements.   Dallet and Viole exchanged identical smirks with each other before Dallet pushed a chair out with his foot, welcoming their friend to sit and join them at the table.

                “We were sharing scary stories we’d heard and Guimel knows one that took place here on the Vione.  It was about these two women, a private and her captain.  They were deeply in love, but a Major had a thing for the captain and tried to have the private killed on a mission.”  Viole said helpfully, grinning widely at the newcomer who listened with interest as he poured himself some water.

                “But she didn’t die no matter how many times he sent her out onto the front lines.”  Guimel butted in, refusing to have his story stolen by anyone when he had a chance to show off his knowledge.  “The captain realized that something was up and tried to convince the Major that no matter what he did, she wasn’t going to be with him.  He was furious and felt that he’d been made a fool of and in his rage, he pulled out his sword to cut the captain down, but the Private took the blow instead, sacrificing her life for her lover.  Grief-stricken, the captain killed the Major, then turned her sword on herself and took her own life!”

                Miguel blinked, his stormy grey eyes glancing at one dragon slayer after the other, taking in their reactions to the story.

                “Alright… and?”  He wasn’t quite seeing how this was a scary story, though he could easily sympathize with the two lovers, fully aware that there were more than a few superiors in the army who had their covetous gazes focussed on his own beloved captain.  Like the private, he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice his life for his lover and he was hoping that Guimel wasn’t simply trying to draw uncomfortable parallels here.

                “Aaaand, you can apparently still hear the captain weeping for her lost lover if you go down to the briefing room on level three at midnight.  That’s when they all died.”  Dallet grinned widely, waving his hands slightly for emphasis.  “We should go there and check it out!”

                “You know… to ensure the safety and security of the Vione.”  Viole added quickly.

                “That’s after lights out and you know it.”  Gatti growled.  “If Lord Dilandau catches any of us wandering the hallways at midnight we’ll all be scrubbing the showers with our toothbrushes.”

                “Well, maybe not Miguel.”  Guimel snickered.  “He’ll want your mouth all clean and pretty.  Speaking of, where is Lord Dilandau?  Did you wear him out?”  The fluffy haired slayer loved to rile up his friend and this time proved to be no different as the brunette’s cheeks turned brilliant pink and he adjusted the collar of his uniform with a cough.

                “Stop being so vulgar.”  Gatti growled irritably, more than a little jealous at his partners luck with love.

                “He has a meeting with Lord Folken.”  Was the prim reply as Miguel did his best to ignore the lewd grins aimed in his direction.  “There’s two new squads that just arrived today and they’re going over some old reports from the front with their captains.  Lord Folken seems to believe there’s something relevant hidden away in them.”

                “Meaning that Lord Dilandau will be there for most of the night and will be in a horrible mood in the morning for training.”  Shesta sighed, already envisioning the slaps he was most likely going to receive.  His jaw ached just thinking about it.  Their captain might be slim and delicate looking, but he could sure pack a punch.  “You’d better have put him in a good mood Miguel.”

                “My money is still on him stabbing one of the new captains before the week is out.”  Guimel couldn’t help but add.  No one took his bet, they all knew their volatile leader far too well.

                “So, if Lord Dilandau AND Lord Folken are both busy, that means we can go and check out this ghost.”  Dallet grinned widely, hopping to his feet and giving the waist of his jacket a few tugs to make sure it was hanging properly.  “Who’s with me?”  Unsurprisingly, Viole was the first to his feet, eager to join in any bit of silliness and fun to be had.  Eager to prove the veracity of his story, Guimel was equally quick to follow. 

                Both Miguel and Gatti shared weighted looks with each other and then sighed in tandem, realizing that someone with a lick of common sense had to accompany the group or they’d all be punished.  That left Shesta as the only holdout and the thin blond stared at the others with a look of utter betrayal.

                “You can’t be serious!  We’ll get caught!  We’ll get in trouble!  What happens if the ghost actually is real?  Ghosts are dangerous!”  He’d grown up in a small village that still clung to several old superstitions and the idea of willingly seeking out the restless dead was nothing short of madness as far as he was concerned.

                “Ghosts don’t exist Shes.”  Gatti grumbled, grabbing the blonde by the back collar and hauling him to his feet.  “Come on, if we’re all going to get in trouble over this, you might as well be part of the problem too.”

                “But… I don’t want to!”

                “Neither do I.  Isn’t sacrifice wonderful?”  Releasing him, Gatti headed for the door, making sure that Shesta exited before he did.  The two friends traded nasty glares with each other before heading after the rest of the group.

 

                Their trip down to level three was more than a little anticlimactic to say the least considering they were heading down there to hunt the undead.  It looked much the same as their familiar seventh level of residence save for the fact that it was somewhat colder what with being dug out of the levistone itself.  The metal plating of the walls seemed to exude a sort of chill which Guimel immediately announced was a sign of spiritual infestation.  It took a great deal of willpower on Gatti’s part to not snap at him that it was in fact because of the temperature controlled stone around them, as evidenced by the soft but constant hum of the great engines deep within the fortress.  Though he’d never been there, he’d heard that the first level was positively hellish whenever the Vione was gaining or dropping altitude.  Either burning hot or freezing cold, the fortresses engineers were obviously madmen to choose to live under such extremes.

                “You see, ghosts bring with them the energy from the Paths of the Dead, that’s why it’s so cold.  The closer the ghost is to you, the chillier the air becomes.  When you can see your breath… that’s when its most likely behind you, reaching out with its icy dead hands to steal your soul away and drag it into the Otherworld with it!”  Guimel was explaining to Shesta with evident relish while Viole snuck up behind him and gently brushed the hair at the nape of his neck. 

                Shesta’s scream was quickly muffled by his teammates and Miguel shot the two boys a murderous glare.

                “Are you TRYING to get us caught?”  He snarled through clenched teeth.  “Because if those Nightguard morons heard that, they’re going to come looking, and if they see us we’ll never hear the end of it.”

                “We’re just setting the mood.”  Viole replied primly, brushing back a long curled lock of hair which had escaped from his ponytail. 

                “No, you’re being an ass and trying to scare Shesta.”

                “Yeah!... I … I mean I wasn’t scared.”  Shesta mumbled softly as he glanced around, hoping no one heard his verbal misstep.  Dallet snickered at that and rolled his eyes dramatically as he slung an arm around his partners shoulder.

                “C’mon, Shes isn’t a coward.  Remember that time he kicked a fucking dragon in the snout when it tried to take a bite out of Ryuun?  The smaller blonde blushed slightly at the memory, a little embarrassed about having attention called to something he figured any of them would do if the opportunity had arisen.

                “Remember?  I’ve never seen Lord Dilandau look so impressed… or a dragon look so pissed off.”  Miguel muttered, torn between admiration for his teammate’s bravery and jealousy of the fact that with that act, the blonde had become a contender for their captain’s affections.  It was something he’d never quite forgiven him for.

                “It was nothing; you guys would have done the same.”  Shesta mumbled, his cheeks turning an even brighter pink, likely following Miguel’s train of thought.

                “Shes!”  Guimel was pointing at the blondes mouth, his eyes wide.  As one, the others all turned to look to see what had attracted his attention.  “I can see your breath!”

                “Yeah, it wasn’t funny the first time ‘Mel, I’m not stupid you know.”  Large blue eyes narrowed in suspicion quickly followed by confusion as Shesta noticed all the other Dragonslayers staring at him with slightly widening eyes.

                “I can see your breath too!”  Dallet infirmed in a loud whisper, then nearly jumped back as he noticed the white plumes rising from his own lips.  “It shouldn’t be cold enough on third level to show our breath… should it?”  Gatti frowned and looked around, as if something about their immediate environment might give them some indication as to what was going on.  Even as he did so, he could feel the temperature steadily dropping.

                “Maybe we’re rising?”  He hazarded, having no real clue how cold the lower levels might actually get during manoeuvers. 

                “We’re in stationary hover for the next three days.”  Miguel stated warily, his hand drifting towards his sword as he glanced around.  “Lord Dilandau was bitching about it earlier.”

                “I’m telling you guys, it’s the ghost!”  All eyes fixed on Guimel who was doing his best to not appear to be at all afraid.  “I told you guys it was real.”  Gatti huffed and strode past his subordinate, heading towards the briefing room with long aggressive strides, ready to bring an end to this foolishness once and for all.

                “There’s a reasonable explanation for this.”  He growled over his shoulder.  “Ghosts aren’t real.  Look, it’s midnight, here’s the briefing room.”  Without a pause, he threw open the door.  “And there’s no ghost!”  With a grand gesture, he waved his hand at the blood drenched room and the impaled body lying on the floor.  The Dragonslayers all stopped dead and stared with growing horror at the scene within.

                Hating himself for doing it, Gatti finally turned his head and looked in the direction he was pointing.  Taking in the grizzly scene, his hand slowly fell down to his side and he opened his mouth several times, trying to form words that would make sense.

                “Th… um… there… yeah… reasonable explanation.  There is one…”  Even as he spoke, they boys could all hear a soft keening sound filled with grief drift through the air around them.  The hairs on their arms and the backs of their necks all stood on end as it grew louder, warping into desolation filled wails.  “Just air in the vents… and er… a gas leak making us all see this…”

                “Give it up Gatti… that’s a ghost.”  Miguel had no idea how he sounded so calm.  He was pretty sure that something inside his head had just turned itself off so that he could deal with this strangeness.

                “I’m really hoping it’s not.”  The second in command murmured, sounding almost defeated, his grey eyes never having left the sight before them.

                “Holy Shit!  I was right!”  The delighted yell from Guimel nearly caused several of them to yelp in terror and Dallet spun around to glare at the smallest slayer.

                “Great!  Yes, you were right!  Now we’re all likely going to die down here!  Happy!”

                “Everyone knows that ghosts can’t hurt you.”  Guimel scoffed, trying to squeeze around Gatti’s larger frame in order to get a better view of the carnage.  At the sound of his mocking voice, the ghost’s eyes snapped open, revealing pale milky blue orbs.  The dragonslayers all froze, staring in horror as the corpse shuddered once, and then as if pulled by the sword still lodged in her chest, rose up to her feet.  There was no sound, not even the brush of armoured boots on metal floor and in moments she stood there staring at them balefully.  Blood dripped down her chest from the sword wound, tracing fine rivulets of crimson down her armour before dripping silently onto the floor.

                “I… I think we should go now.”  Miguel murmured, taking a step back, his eyes still locked on the creature before them.  As if mimicking his movements, her booted foot lifted into the air and she moved closer to them.  Her blue tinged lips twisted into a horrific smile as her leather clad hands reached forward to grab at them.  The room around them grew colder with every passing moment but they barely noticed, their attention fully fixed on the approaching corpse.

                “Gatti?”  Dallet whispered, jabbing the second in command in the ribs, trying to knock him out of his shock.  The others were already backing into the hallway; their hands on their swords even as they wondered if they could even hurt what was already dead.  “Gatti, I think it’s time we left.”

                Snapping out of his daze, the ash blond slayer blinked several times and then grit his teeth tightly to keep from screaming in an inglorious fashion as he realized the things gore covered fingers were less than a body length away from him.  Still she continued to step forward, the blood from her wound flowing faster, draining from her body and splashing onto the floor in large puddles.  In another two steps, she’d be touching him and Gatti knew deep down inside that he truly didn’t want that to happen.

                Strong fingers grabbed him by his jacket collar and yanked him back sharply, causing him to stumble out of the room.  The ghost let out a bloodcurdling yowl of frustration at being denied fresh young lives but the Dragonslayers were already racing down the hallways towards the exit.  None of them cared if they ran into Nightguard members, all that mattered was getting back up to their safe warm common room where things made sense and ghosts were nothing but scary stories.

               

By the time they did reach seventh level and the safety of their common room, all of them were breathing heavily and no one dared look each other in the eyes.  If they did, it felt like they would be somehow acknowledging what had happened and right now, no one wanted to deal with the fact that they’d just seen the impossible.

“You’re not allowed to share anymore stories with us Guimel.”  Shesta shot the curly haired boy a glare of death as he curled up in a tight ball on his previous chair; refusing to so much as budge once he was settled.

“Agreed.”  Stated Dallet’s dry voice, sounding more than a little winded.  “But I say that we never tell anyone about this.  Ever.”  His pale grey eyes finally rose up to meet those of his team and he shivered slightly at seeing how pale and drawn everyone looked.

“Hells yeah.”  Viole settled himself against the far wall, his sword unsheathed and balanced across his knees just in case the ghost decided to follow them upstairs.  “I want to forget that this ever happened.”

“But!”  Guimel peeped up, earning several warning glares from the others.  “But we need to report this!  I mean guys!  Ghosts!  How cool is that?  Lord Folken might even be able to do something about it… or recruit it.  He’s always making friends with strange things.”

Miguel walked over to Guimel and smacked him soundly across the back of the head before moving to sit next to Gatti and crossing his arms over his chest.

“So, you want to go and report that we decided to go for a stroll at midnight to investigate a stupid story, saw something that no one in their right mind would believe then admit that we ran away like cowards?”  His tone was harsh and unforgiving, reminding them all of how everyone else would see their transgressions, especially their captain.  Understanding their predicament, Guimel hung his head sadly, unable to repress a slight shiver.

“…no… no you’re right.”

“Of course I am, and we’re never following anymore of your stupid stories.”

“Right!  Now we should really get to our cabins before duty watch comes by and finds us out of bed.”  Gatti announced though he made no move to get up and neither did the others.

“Or …” Viole hazarded softly, still eyeing the door nervously.  “We could all just stay here.  There’s no ghosts here.”  Once again, everyone made silent eye contact and all seemed to reach an agreement.  One by one, they made themselves comfortable where they sat and prepared to spend the night if need be, guarding each other’s sleep.  There was no offer to turn out the light.  Rules be damned.

 

Ryuun walked down the hallway bored out of his mind.  He always loathed duty watch and did his best not to think about the rest of his team all curled up in their bunks getting rest while he patrolled the hallways.  He’d already posted up the flight roster Lord Dilandau had left in his office for him, checked to ensure that the training room, changing room, showers and throne room were immaculate.  Even all of the second and third tier members of the team were all tucked away in their barracks down the hallway.

Heaving a heavy sigh, knowing that he still had another hour left to his watch before he was relieved for a whole four hours of sleep before having to get up for morning briefing, he turned down the hallway which housed the elite members of the team.  As expected, it was perfectly silent and he spared his and Guimel’s room a wistful look before walking past the private lounge, frowning as he realized that someone had left the light on.  Dammit, he grumbled softly to himself.  As if the Captain didn’t have enough to bitch at them about, now they were wasting power. 

He’d told those idiots that the Vione, while massive and state of the art still had limited supplies and they couldn’t afford to needlessly waste power.  Hadn’t Lord Folken sent them all a rather long and detailed memo stating just that?  No, of course none of them had read it.  Well, maybe Shesta had, he was nuts about anything involving the printed word.

Angrily, Ryuun opened the door and leaned n to tap the light switch when he paused and simply stared at the contents of the lounge.  All of the elites were gathered inside; sound asleep propped up in chairs, on the small couch and even curled up in a corner.  All had their swords in their hands and despite the fact that everyone was sound asleep; there was a clear sense of tension in the air.

“What the hell?”  He breathed, staring at one teammate after another, trying to piece together what could have possibly happened to cause such odd behavior.  Whatever it was, even the normally stickler for rules Gatti seemed to have been affected, having been the one to claim the couch for his own.

Deciding that he was better off not knowing, Ryuun quietly backed out of the room and closed the door, leaving the light on for his friends.  Lord Dilandau had sent word that he expected to be at this meeting all night and Ryuun was pretty sure he could slip back to the lounge and wake up the rest of the elite before their Captain came by in the morning.  He would just have to stress to Rikard, the second tier Dragonslayer who would relieve him to stay clear of the lounge on his rounds if he knew what was good for him. 

Gatti was going to owe him big for covering for them and Ryuun was going to make sure he paid up when the time came.  Of course, he was also going to make sure he heard the story of what was behind this strange behavior, but that would wait until they all woke up.  Smiling, the tall Slayer adjusted his glasses and continued on his rounds in silence.

**Author's Note:**

> I find it painfully ironic how the Dragonslayers are all determined that ghosts a: don't exist and b: that they are harmless...considering what happens to them, its just mean on my part.


End file.
